Seoul shares closed unchanged on Tuesday, as bargain hunters boosted tech shares such as LG Display after solid results from IBM, limiting the impact of persistent Europe and US debt problems roiling global financial markets. "With overseas debt issues haunting foreign investors, overall risk appetite has fallen sharply and the market simply doesn't have energy strong enough to power ahead," said Lee Kyung-soo, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.
"The index will continue to drift at the current level until we see signs of European and US fiscal problems nearing an end." With the clock ticking in Washington before an August 2 deadline on the federal borrowing limit, political leaders were still at an impasse. Europe also appeared no closer to sealing a deal for a second bailout of Greece ahead of Thursday's European Union summit. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed down 0.01 percent, or 0.27 points, at 2,130.21 points after seesawing in the range of a 0.3 percent fall and a 0.5 percent gain. KOSPI 200 September futures fell 0.35 points to 277.00 points and the KOSPI 200 spot index eased 0.13 points to 276.58. The junior Kosdaq market gained 1.26 percent to 524.48.
Foreign investors were net sellers for the sixth straight session, offloading 310 billion won ($292 million) worth of shares. In the junior Kosdaq bourse, shares in chicken meat producer Harim jumped 3.3 percent.